For Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo, taking matters into his own hands while his team was down 9-3 meant crosschecking Penguins defenseman Zbynek Michalek, then punching a kneeling Michalek in the face after the whistle.

With their eventual 10-3 win, the Penguins stayed alive and forced Friday's Game 5.

Game 3 between the teams was an utter disaster, with three Penguins earning suspensions for their antics, and the NHL playoffs generally have been a mess of dirty hits and confusing disciplinary decisions. The highest-profile example was an illegal hit by Coyotes forward Raffi Torres that put Chicago Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa in the hospital. Torres was suspended indefinitely by the league and has a disciplinary hearing on Friday.

Rinaldo received 24 minutes in penalties for the sequence and said Thursday that he didn't regret it, didn't expect to be suspended and that Michalek hadn't done anything to him earlier in the game.

"It's my emotions. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I was really frustrated that we were getting blown out of the water, 9-3, so I took matters into my own hands," Rinaldo said.

As noted by Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rinaldo had gone 12:14 between shifts before the incident; Flyers coach Peter Laviolette called Penguins coach Dan Bylsma "gutless" for a similar move during an out-of-reach Flyers win when he put his checking line against the Flyers' skilled players in the final minute, resulting in a hard, legal check by Pittsburgh center Joe Vitale that injured Danny Briere.

"Those guys hadn't played in 12 minutes, that's a gutless move by their coach. It's gutless," Laviolette said after that game, which featured a line brawl and on-ice screaming match between the teams.